


590 square feet

by ephemeral_vitality



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, Markbum, One Shot, Roommates, domestic markbum, help me lol, idk if i should put that in relationships or tags, what other kind of AU would it be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 16:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13640148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ephemeral_vitality/pseuds/ephemeral_vitality
Summary: mark was a monarch in another country. he was admired, and serviced, and respected. however, he wanted to see how different it was to live in new york city- infamous for making or breaking people.jaebum is a regular college student who met mark online and wanted to help mark out by letting him stay at his place for the school year.now, 590 square feet is adequate enough. sure they need to share a bed, but a pillow barrier alleviates any discomfort.590 square feet leaves little room for them, but lots of room for shared feelings and stories and smiles and memories.590 square feet is just what comes with living in new york.590 square feet may just be all they need.♕ LONG-ISH ONESHOT♕ MARK'S POV (save for some parts)





	590 square feet

**Author's Note:**

> UM SORRY FOR WHAT I DID IN 'THOSE WHO HAVE SHATTERED THE STARS' TAKE THIS AS AN APOLOGY 
> 
> let this calm u down while ch. 11 is being written lol
> 
> this just shows a little thing about how markbum falls in love after being roommates with a weird circumstance. 
> 
> this is so damn fluffy lol it was written to, mostly, 'toothpaste kisses' by the maccabees

The grand table that required me to sit nearly ten feet away from whomever I was talking to seemed fancy and luxurious, sure.

But there was nothing quite like feeling my legs huddled together with his underneath the small breakfast table in that tiny New York City apartment.

And the way I had to shout to have my voice heard by the other person made me seem powerful, sure.

But the fact that we could talk in whispers and breathless giggles made it feel like we had the whole world in the few inches between our faces.

And I'll agree that sometimes it's easier to let your parents just find you a person they think would be a good date; the child of a business partner, perhaps.

But having someone of my very own, having him so close to my heart, and an unspoken adoration was all I ever really needed.

"You ready for today?" He asked one day, as he always did in the early hours of the morning, his foot lazily grazing my leg. His hands loosely gripped the silverware as he played around with his pancakes.

I answered positively and in confidence as I struggled to fork a strawberry into my mouth, much to his amusement. I felt my cheeks heat up at the subtle sound of his chuckle, nearly silent; had he been anyone else, it would've gone unnoticed.

He was asking me if I was ready to suffer through my next day as a new student. He behaved as if I was still new to the school, looking over the fact that it was in the middle of May, nine months after I had come to the city.

I shook my head slightly, my mind suddenly flashing through the way he welcomed me on my first day, how strange and quiet we were, but how unstoppable we somehow seemed. 

"What is it?" He asked. His mouth half-full, eyes half-moons, and my heart half-echo as it beat hard through my body. He pointed fleetingly with his fork. "What are you thinking about?"

I smiled downwards, and he scoffed lightheartedly, used to my timid nature. My foot found his, our patterned pajama pants brushing together at the action as I muttered out an uncharacteristically forward answer.

"You."

He huffed out a single, thundering laugh, and threw himself backward to rest on his chair. Looking to the side, he shook his head, as if to show he expected my reply. I watched, his hair still wet but beginning to dry; his eyes still a little puffy, his lips somewhat chapped. I felt my tongue swipe over my own bottom lip involuntarily.

"Of course, what else would it be?" His dark eyes shifted toward me, but his pose stayed the same for a little before he faced me completely. "Mark Tuan, you never fail to amaze me."

And the faces of my admirers waiting to greet me could never,  _never_  compare to seeing his face right as he drifts off to sleep, a quiet  _'goodnight'_  tumbling from his parted lips. Or seeing his face when I wake up, a big puppy-dog grin showing off his perfect teeth. Or seeing his face, period. Nothing could compare to that, really.

He groaned in defeat when he walked into the bedroom one morning to see me start to wake up, disappointed that he wasn't there to initiate it. He was brushing his teeth and decided to check up on me.

Crawling over shirtless to me in my dazed, barely-awake state of mind probably wasn't a good idea. The closer his toned torso got to me on the bed, the farther away I scooted, and the redder my cheeks became. Toothbrush in one hand, my waist in the other, he pulled me close and I smelled mint and the faint smell of body wash as my eyes closed.

"Cute," He marveled, shoving the toothbrush back into his mouth as he ran his free hand down my back. I shivered in the morning air, and he only pulled me closer, letting me drift off to sleep again.

One could only imagine my face when I woke again to see a toothpaste kiss-mark on my cheek.

I cleaned it off before getting ready and going to the kitchen. The toothpaste was gone, but I could still feel the exact spot, stinging with mint. It was gone, but I knew he could tell that I was focusing on it.

I walked towards the smell of eggs, towards the sound of his faint, beautiful singing. A dumb song on the radio sounded like a breathtaking composition with him. Crafted slowly, note by note. He laughed tenderly upon my entrance, his eyes disappearing into dark crescents.

And I laughed along, too, going over to help him make our breakfast.   
  
That night, we brushed our teeth side by side, and with a few accidental elbow bumps, we were shuffling to switch sides. His left-handedness was a minor detail in our lives, often overlooked as we subconsciously accommodated to it. I leaned against the wall and he spat into the sink, and when he came back up to turn to me, I halted my actions slightly, my toothbrush stuttering across my teeth. My eyes widened when I saw his hand lower down to my waist, but he chuckled as he reached for the towel behind me.

Without thinking, I leaned forward, planting a foamy kiss on his cheek. He burst into breathy laughter, and bashfully bowed his head as I quickly spat and got ready to leave the bathroom. A smile spread across my face as I promptly padded to the bedroom, feeling as though he was going to end up chasing me. I heard the slow creak of the door, giggling in the safety of the duvet, and the warmth and comfort of the blankets.

"Did you think you'd be safe here?" I heard, and soon, he was jumping under with me and touching me with his cold hands, making me shriek. "It's a whopping 590 square feet we have here," he breathed once both of our faces were covered with the sheets. "Did you suddenly forget that we share a bed?"

" _No_ ," I answered in some stupid voice. His hands went to my bare legs, pulling them towards him. I melted into his touch, into his defined arms and strong chest. His minty breath reminded me of that day's toothpaste kisses, and I knew he still felt mine like I did his.

We talked about the future that night, with surprisingly few mentions of robots and hoverboards. He mentioned feeling scared of having kids, and I mentioned feeling scared of being alone, and we realized that if things continued the way they were already going, we had nothing to be afraid of.

But we both knew deep down that things never continue going the way they'd been going for a while.

He was in the middle of telling me, as he always did in the late hours of the night, how important I was to him before he drifted off, his forehead slowly falling to meet mine. My wide, curious eyes stared at his closed ones, at the two little moles on his eyelid, at his pretty eyelashes.

He finished his sentence with one of his famed  _'goodnight'_ s, his lips gently grazing mine as he said it.

And I laid there, blushing, ecstatic, wondering if he knew what happened, wondering if he knew how it made me feel.

I drifted off, and my heart was singing.   
  


♕♕♕- III.

_Mark sat at the head of the table, his mother at the other end, various reporters on the sides of the unnecessarily long piece of furniture. With a particularly piercing glare at her son, Mrs. Tuan prompted him to sit up and adjust the shirt he was wearing. He pretended to focus on the spokesman who was announcing Mark's decision to study in New York City, away from his family._

_Mark smiled politely at the applause, and in a week's time, he was giving his family goodbye kisses at the airport, receiving empty promises of extravagant, weekly visits to his school._

♕♕♕- III.

School was interesting when it felt like my only classmates were bodyguards. It gave me a different sense of worth to only be focusing on academics and nothing else.

But I'd never trade it for the protection I felt when I had only one person with me, when I had someone who offered to carry my things just because he wanted to see me smile.

And a homemade three-course meal for lunch was great and kept me well-nourished throughout the day.

But I'd give it all up if it meant I couldn't share $1 pizza slices and hot coffee with my favorite person right across from me.

A secluded, quiet place to eat may have been very comfortable, as well.

But there was something about the fact that he could make it seem nearly silent in a city full of people, just by talking to me, just by taking my focus completely and forever.

He stood up without hesitation when I mentioned wanting a second slice of pizza, pushing his slice towards me on the way one Friday afternoon in between our classes. I watched as he gracefully disappeared from my sight on his way to get more, and I watched as people took notice of him. A few girls looked a little too long, a few guys did, too. An older woman put a hand to her heart when he started to walk back to me, extra slices of pizza and a cookie in his hands.

"You wanna get coffee after our final classes?" He asked idly, as he knew that my answer would be yes. I smiled and nodded, and he held a piece of pizza up to feed me. I scoffed and rolled my eyes, and I was about to tell him how childish it was, but I realized that I blushed at the thought of him  _kissing my cheek,_  for God's sake, so I let him feed me. He smiled brightly, and my heart soared, and I wanted to know if there was ever a time when I fell in love but never knew it.

We sat together at the small coffee shop that we frequented, so often that the staff knew us, calling our orders together with a loud, weird combination of our names, ' _MarknJaebum.'_

We sat not like the regular party of two, where they sit across from each other. We sat in strange ways. Always as close as we could get, maybe because that's what we were used to in our cozy 590 square feet. Maybe because that's just what happens if you love without saying it. Sometimes, he'd bring his chair so we were on the same side of the table, sometimes we'd sit on the couch if it was free. Sometimes, we'd share an armchair.

Like I said, amongst the distracting atmosphere, amongst the calling baristas, loud milk steamers and coffee grinders and blenders, the clinking spoons and glasses and conversations of customers as they came and went, I only heard Jaebum. It was the most peaceful situation I could find myself in, with the exception of every special moment we shared at the apartment.

It was an armchair type of day, and I could rest my head against his shoulder as we read separate books, drinking my iced coffee as he carefully sipped his hot.   
  


♕♕- II.

_Jaebum walked into the bedroom and climbed into bed a few weeks after Mark had arrived in the city to see that Mark had gotten rid of the barrier of pillows in the middle of the bed. He laid down, and they slept back-to-back, and he knew that in no time, they'd begin to sleep facing each other, and then they'd begin to sleep huddled together. He knew that in no time, they'd begin to do everything together, they'd use stupid excuses to be as close as possible._

_In no time, his heart would begin to beat for Mark Tuan, and all the things that he did._

♕♕- II.

I thought that there could never be fear like the fear I felt when someone was threatening my life for something dumb I said in public.

But the fear of ever losing him was the kind of fear that would come into the back of my mind and stay there for a couple of days before it became all I could think about.

And  _I could never lose him_  was among the thoughts that traveled through my head as he talked to me one day in the hallway. He asked his question again, but it failed to reach me, yet I nodded and smiled as if I heard him.

"Cool, have fun in class," Jaebum said, gently squeezing my shoulder as he set my stuff down at my desk. I put my head down and let my thoughts take me for the few minutes before the professor arrived.

As I got out of my last class, I waited for him at our usual spot before we went home, and when he didn't show, the thoughts that began to fade suddenly came back. I walked home alone, feeling more defeated than I ever did. It was the first time he ever went somewhere without me, and it had to be conveniently on a day that I felt scared of losing him.

The 590 square feet didn't seem comforting to me anymore, as if it refused to welcome me if he wasn't by my side. And without him, it felt gigantic, too big for me to handle, bigger than I ever would be, like it could just swallow me up forever.

I set my phone on the kitchen counter before heading quickly to the bed. I imagined him with a particularly pretty classmate of his that I've noticed, she always looked at him the way that I did.

They could've been eating $1 dollar pizza, or been drinking coffee, or laughing together the way we always did. I imagined Jaebum laughing, mouth half-full, eyes half-moons, my heart half-broken as he began to forget me.

I drifted off in the bed, which was especially cold that day. The feeling of missing someone that I thought I still had was exhausting.

The front door burst open, and in the small apartment, it seemed surprisingly distant. My eyes slowly opened to the colors of dusk streaming through the curtains, indicating that a few hours had passed. I heard my name being shouted, and now it seemed close. Close enough to make me shake, to be felt in my fingertips as I pulled the covers tighter.

"Where the hell were you?" Jaebum now talked in an urgent whisper, my phone in his hand, about 20 missed calls lighting up the screen. He walked over to me, the familiar pattern of his steps creaking closer. I sat up, still tired, and he only held me close to him, my head buried in the soft fabric of his sweater.

His heartbeat was fast, irregular, and I knew it was because of me.

"I thought something bad happened, I looked everywhere." He breathed, and I felt his hand stroke my hair, shaking. "Why'd you go home? I thought you were gonna go with me to the library after school. Were you not feeling well?"

He pressed a hand to my forehead to check, holding me tight after confirming I had no fever. I began cursing myself for zoning out when he'd asked the question, and I began cursing myself for ever thinking that Jaebum would leave my side. I apologized and held him back, and I felt my face heat up at the gentle forehead kisses I received.

I felt every fear dissipate, knowing I would never be afraid of anything.

Because he was there.

♕- I.

_The time of the year when it began to warm up, Mark and Jaebum strolled across Central Park, admiring the weather. The sounds of traffic accompanied their walk, constantly reminding them of where they were. Jaebum felt Mark's hand slip into his, subtly, almost as if it hadn't happened at all._

_Jaebum laughed and squeezed his hand as they continued on, and he thought that maybe they'd fall in love that way._

_Subtly, almost as if it hadn't happened at all._

♕- I.

Love was not a deciding factor to me then, it didn't matter if I loved someone, I had to go with whomever my parents chose. I doubted if love even existed.

With Jaebum, it was there always. Usually, it was in the small things. He'd ask about my day every single time we walked home, and he'd pull out my chair when we had meals. He'd burn the pancakes a little each time because he knew I liked them that way, even if he hated it. He'd borrow books from the library he thought would interest me.

I always wondered if I would know for sure when I fell in love. I always thought that it would hit me suddenly. But it was just something that I noticed one day, and I remembered hearing somewhere that once you knew you were in love, there would be no question about it.

I think it was when I saw his calm stride and slight smirk one day as he walked beside me. Or maybe it was after that first toothpaste kiss, (or the second, or the third...) or maybe when he told me there was nobody else he'd rather be next to in life. Maybe when I saw his small smile when I observed how he ordered hot coffee while I ordered iced, even though we seemed like a perfect match.

Whenever it was, there was no question about it.

I was in love.

Once in June at 3 am, we walked around the city and saw that it was still bustling with its usual crowds of people. I believe I was thinking about how I never imagined I could ever be so happy, and that was when he held my hand a little differently than usual. And then he turned to me, that normal playful way that always causes me to kiss his cheek and send us both into a fit of shy giggles.

And then he kissed me.

Slowly and carefully like he wasn't really sure, but I knew that he was.

His hands cupped my red face as I kissed back, and it was shocking to me that it took us that long for a proper kiss.

And then he whispered that he loved me, as he began to do every time after that, and I said I loved him back.

And I knew that from that point on, I'd never want anything bigger than our 590 square feet.


End file.
